Motorcycle exhaust Wrap?

[digitalsam]

This is an odd question, but a friend told me that I need to wrap my exhaust with exhaust tape. He couldn't give a better reason than looks. I like the chrome exhaust but am curious why you would want to wrap a motorcycle exhaust? Heat in a car, stuffed under the hood, I can understand. But why on a bike? I have seen it most often on bobbers.

Just a question.

[1st bike]

i don't know why you HAVE to, but i actually love the way it looks. I am going to try and put new pipes on my 80 xs1100, and wrap them, but that is about my last project....

[DiverRay]

You would wrap a bike exhaust too keep the heat off your legs, for the most part. The wrap will hold in the heat, and if you are running a turbo it will help a little with HP. A lot of people believe you need the wrap on a "hot" engine to help keep the engine cool.
I think the wrap isn't that good looking, and it will not stay on that well if you ride like I do, year-round. I will try and get a ceramic coat on the exhaust system for my project. It will hold in the heat, and stay looking good even when it's been through a rain storm or five.....

[randy]

Why anyone would wrap a chrome exhaust, especially a new one is beyond me. I could see if it was ratty and rusted, maybe a wrap would be a cheap temporary alternative if replacement was too costly.

[Ivan]

That stuff is just a cast you put on until your exhaust heals, so you don't have to re break it.

[cywelchjr]

In general I think that exhaust wrap looks stupid. Either get them re-chromed, painted or ceramic coated. I'm thinking of jet hot type coating for my Jardines, they have one available that looks almost like chrome.

[xs11jack]

Sometime ago

I was told that keeping the heat in the exhast pipe increases the horsepower in some way. There used to be a ceramic coating for the inside of the pipes that would increase the horsepower 10%. I can't remember the name of the company, but they catered mostly to the street rod people.

[81xsproject]

Your correct, hotter air has less flow resistance. Personally, I think it looks good on the right bike and plan on doing it to my SuperTrapp.

[TADracer]

I'm not much for the look of a wrap either but the idea is to keep the heat of the gasses inside the pipe.

Insulating the pipe with a wrap or a ceramic type coating holds the heat inside of the pipe and will slightly accelerate the exhaust gasses resulting in better scavenging during the exhaust stroke and during the valve overlap event. At least that is what Techline Coatings says and they supply the ceramic coatings to many of the header coaters.

I do know if you get your pipes coated at a Jet Hot dealer they blast and coat both inside and outside of the pipe.